First try at restoring a 1985 VF1000R

I thought I would start my own restoration and build thread. This will be my first attempt at a VF1000R so i'm very new to a lot of this. I may not know the terminology when it comes to this bike so bare with me.
Just a quick background on how I acquired the bikes. I found an ad on Craigslist for 2 of these bikes that a really nice man was selling for $800. I contacted him and asked him if he was into older bikes and luckily he had interest in older CB750's. I had a 1974 CB750 that I acquired for $150 two months prior. I offered him a trade: his two VF1000R's for the 1974 CB750, 2 parts engines, and a 1972 CB750K frame and engine. He accepted the deal. That's when I decided to try to get one of these restored and started. Best part of the deal: both bikes had titles and were non-op.

Since I don't know too much about these bikes, I plan on keeping one stock and the other one i'll use as reference then do a modern restoration with parts I already have in my garage:

I'm sure some have seen this pictures of this VF1000R restomod and it probably belongs to someone in this forum


I'm planning to do a similar build to the picture and just trying to get all the parts to do the restomod. I have a swingarm and wheel from a 1993 VFR750:
I bought two 1986 VFR750 tanks . And I have a complete front end minus the wheel from a 2007 GSXR1000 .

I want to make the bike stance similar to my other bike


First thing is to get the bike started and see the condition of the engine. The previous owner said that the engine started 4 years ago. He put the bikes in storage and drained the carbs. I finally was able to get the carbs out and clean them in a pinesol soak in the ultrasonic machine. Here are the carbs after cleaning . As you can see in the pictures, the carbs cleaned up nicely.

Today I plan on taking out the spark plugs and shoot some oil in the cylinder before I try cranking the engine.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome. I'll try to take as much pictures as I can and post them as the project goes. More to come.

 

Looks like a top project for you.
Keep us updated on the progress.

 

Good luck, sure love the 1000R pictured..undertail
Exhaust and that 8 spoke wheel, absolutely beautiful

 

Pretty sure I'm following this somewhere else, but can't find it now. Anyway, looking forward to progress.

Good luck! This place is a gold mine for info.

Mike.

 

Thanks guys for the words of encouragement! I just reinstalled the carbs last night. The original rubber manifolds were cracked and hard as a rock. The new ones came in 2 days ago. That made it 10 times easier to install the carbs. New plugs, oil filter, batter, and oil last night. Cranked the engine to circulate the oil. I'll try to fire it up once the batter is charged up.

 

Hope we get a video when you light her up